August, 27 2012, 12:00am EDT
Arctic Summer Sea Ice Melts to New Historic Low
Rapid Ice Loss Is Latest Clear Signal of Worsening Climate Crisis
SAN FRANCISCO
The world's climate crisis has hit a dire new milestone: The extent of sea ice across the Arctic is the smallest on record, the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced today. The agency said sea ice currently covers just 1.58 million square miles (4.1 million square kilometers).
"This is a profound -- and profoundly depressing -- moment in the history of our planet," said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute. "The sea-ice death spiral, coming during one of the warmest summers in American history, is just one more clear sign of the deepening climate crisis that we ignore at our own peril."
The previous minimum since satellite records began in 1972 was 1.61 million square miles (4.17 million square kilometers) on Sept. 18, 2007, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The record was broken this year several weeks before the minimum extent is normally reached, and additional sea-ice declines are very likely since the ice may continue to decline through mid-September. The current sea ice extent is about 1.1 million square miles less than the average minimum extent between 1979 and 2000 - that's like losing an area of ice one-third the size of the contiguous United States.
Arctic sea ice plays a critical role in regulating our global climate by reflecting most of the sun's energy back into space and keeping the polar region cool. As the ice pack melts, more of the sun's energy is absorbed by the underlying seawater, spurring the Arctic to heat up at an ever-faster pace. Recent studies have linked melting sea ice and accelerating Arctic warming to changes in the Jet Stream that increase the frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, heat waves and cold spells in the United States and other mid-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The rapid loss of sea ice also poses a severe threat to endangered polar bears, ice seals, walruses and other Arctic animals that rely on sea ice for survival.
"Polar bears, seals and other Arctic wildlife will bear the deadly brunt of ice loss, but all of us will be hurt by the world's quickly warming climate if we don't act now," Wolf said.
Today's announcement caps a summer of record-breaking extreme weather events fueled by manmade climate change. Since Jan. 1, 2012, more than 40,000 high temperature records have been broken in the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. At the end of July, the hottest month on record, approximately two-thirds of the country was in drought.
In addition to the loss of sea-ice extent, the thickness and volume of the ice has also been declining dramatically, making the overall ice pack more vulnerable to further summer melting. Earlier this month, researchers with the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 probe reported that Arctic sea-ice volume is declining much faster than expected, with 3,118 cubic miles (13,000 cubic kilometers) of sea ice measured in the summer of 2004 and only 1,679 cubic miles (7,000 cubic kilometers) this summer. At the current pace, the Arctic could be ice-free in the summer for a day or more by the end of the decade. Animals that rely on the sea ice for hunting, resting and raising young are almost certain to face a higher death toll from starvation and drowning.
Greenland also experienced record melting this summer, with a record 97 percent of the ice sheet undergoing surface melting on July 15, 2012, according to NASA. The melting of the land-based Greenland ice sheet raises sea levels and threatens coastal communities around the globe.
"Deep and rapid carbon pollution cuts are essential to slow the warming of the Arctic and maintain a safe climate for the rest of the globe," said Wolf. "Reductions in the powerful greenhouse pollutants methane and black carbon are also needed to slow warming in the short term."
Both the technology and the legal tools to achieve rapid greenhouse pollution reductions are already in place. Full use of all of the Clean Air Act's successful pollution-reduction programs is our best route to quick reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The Obama administration, however, has been too slow and timid in using the law to cut pollution. In response, 34 communities representing more than 13 million people have joined the Center's Clean Air Cities campaign, which urges President Obama and the EPA to address the climate crisis through the Clean Air Act's science-based programs.
Learn more about the Center's Clean Air Cities campaign and get the facts about the Clean Air Act.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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Privacy Defenders Decry 'Spy Draft' in Section 702 Renewal Advanced by Senate
"It's not about who RISAA allows the government to spy on, it's about who RISAA allows the government to force to spy," explained one critic.
Apr 18, 2024
Civil liberties defenders on Thursday decried the U.S. Senate's advancement of the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which critics say lawmakers are trying to ram through without protection against warrantless surveillance and with a provision that would effectively make every American a spy whether they like it or not.
Senators voted 67-32 in favor of a cloture motion to begin voting on RISAA, a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on Friday. FISA—a highly controversial law that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times—allows warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens but also often sweeps up Americans' communication data in the process.
In a 273-147 vote last week, House lawmakers passed RISAA, including an amendment critics say dramatically expands the government's unchecked surveillance authority by compelling a wide range of individuals and organizations—including businesses and the media—to cooperate in government spying operations.
This so-called "Make Everyone a Spy" clause would allow the attorney general or director of national intelligence to force electronic communication service providers to "immediately provide... all information, facilities, or assistance" the government deems necessary.
"This bill would basically allow the government to institute a spy draft," Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, warned Thursday. "It will lead to significant distrust between journalists and sources, not to mention everyone else."
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In addition to the "Make Everyone a Spy" provision, civil libertarians have sounded the alarm over the House lawmakers' rejection of an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the legislation.
Critics accuse Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and colleagues including Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) of trying to rush a vote on RISAA while disingenuously claiming Section 702's powers will expire with the law on Friday. That's a misleading claim, as a national security court earlier this month approved the government's request to continue a disputed surveillance program even if Section 702 lapses.
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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—who
said earlier this week that the bill would dragoon the American people into becoming "an agent for Big Brother"—on Thursday argued that "this issue demands a debate about meaningful reforms, not a rushed vote to rubber-stamp more warrantless government surveillance powers."
In an attempt to tackle the warrantless surveillance issue, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) on Thursday proposed a RISAA amendment that would require the government to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before accessing Americans' private communications.
However, the amendment contains exceptions to the warrant requirement in the event of unspecified emergencies and cyberattacks.
"If the government wants to spy on the private communications of Americans, they should be required to get approval from a judge—just as our Founders intended," Durbin said in a statement. "Congress has a responsibility to the American people to get this right."
The Biden administration and U.S. intelligence agencies vehemently oppose the Durbin-Cramer amendment. The White House called the measure "a reckless policy choice contrary to the key lessons of 9/11 and not grounded in any constitutional requirement or statute."
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On Wednesday, the House also passed the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act, which would prohibit the government from buying Americans' information from data brokers if it would otherwise need a warrant to obtain the data, which includes location and internet records. The Senate will now take up FANFSA.
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Since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has said is a "plausibly" genocidal assault of the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas-led October attack, the Biden administration has blocked three cease-fire resolutions at the Security Council. Under mounting global pressure, the U.S. finally abstained last month, allowing a cease-fire measure to pass.
In the lead-up to Thursday's vote, the Biden administration was pressuring other countries to oppose the Palestinian Authority's renewed membership effort so it could possibly avoid a veto, according to leaked cables obtained by The Intercept.
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After the vote, U.N. Newsreported on remarks from Riyad Mansour, a U.N. permanent observer for the state of Palestine:
"We came to the Security Council today as an important historic moment, regionally and internationally, so that we could salvage what can be saved. We place you before a historic responsibility to establish the foundations of a just and comprehensive peace in our region."
Council members were given the opportunity "to revive the hope that has been lost among our people" and to translate their commitment towards a two-state solution into firm action "that cannot be maneuvered or retracted," and the majority of council members "have risen to the level of this historic moment, and they have stood on the side of justice and freedom and hope, in line with the ethical and humanitarian and legal principles that must govern our world and in line with simple logic."
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The arrests of dozens of Columbia University and Barnard College students on Thursday "galvanized" other supporters of Palestinian rights on the campuses, as hundreds of students occupied the school's western lawn after New York City police filled at least two buses with protesters who had been detained for setting up an encampment.
"Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest," chanted hundreds of students as they marched around the area where organizers had set up a tent encampment early Wednesday morning.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik informed the campus community on Thursday that she had authorized the police to clear the encampment.
As it has been in the past, the school has become a center of anti-war protests—and crackdowns by school officials and the police—since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October.
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In response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Columbia in November suspended the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine—an action that pushed the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal to file a lawsuit on behalf of the students last month.
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U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose daughter, Isra Hirsi, was among the Barnard students who were suspended on Thursday for participating in the encampment protest, questioned Shafik about whether antisemitic protests have actually taken place at Columbia, prompting the president to say there have not.
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"Correct," replied Shafik.
On Thursday, Omar posted on social media two images of protesters at Columbia: one from the encampment this week, and one from 1968, when students protested the U.S. war in Vietnam.
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